About

I’m Chen Chow, one of the cardiologists at the Cotton O’Neil Heart Center.

What drew you to cardiology?

One of the reasons I find cardiology particularly interesting is that I think the heart is fascinating. I think how the heart is functioning together with its arteries, with its wiring and conduction systems to allow the heart to squeeze in a synchronized fashion — all of the valves working together — I think it’s a fascinating organ.

What areas of cardiology do you specialize in?

Beyond general cardiology, there are two areas within cardiology that I specialize in. The first one is advanced heart failure, where patients have a heart that is inadequate for its function — either because it’s too stiff or because it’s too weak. So, these patients require specialized care.

The second part of cardiology that I specialize in is cardiac imaging. And that includes echocardiogram and nuclear medicine, but also cardiac CT and cardiac MRI, where we are able to characterize tissue of the heart a lot better and diagnose certain cardiac diseases beyond what is available in regular imaging modalities.

Cardiology 10 years ago is different from cardiology 20 years ago. It’s cardiology that’s very different now — and I hope that it would continue to be different in the next 10 years as well.